1. Modulation in cortical excitability disrupts information transfer in perceptual-level stimulus processing.
- Author
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Moheimanian, Ladan, Paraskevopoulou, Sivylla E., Adamek, Markus, Schalk, Gerwin, and Brunner, Peter
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KNOWLEDGE transfer , *AUDITORY perception , *SENSORY stimulation , *AUDITORY cortex , *MOTOR cortex - Abstract
• Cortical information traverses from auditory to motor cortex. • Perception-level stimuli evoke a small and slower cortical response. • Transmission of cortical information is disrupted for missed perception-level stimuli. • Cortical disruption is related to insufficient cortical excitability. [Display omitted] Despite significant interest in the neural underpinnings of behavioral variability, little light has been shed on the cortical mechanism underlying the failure to respond to perceptual-level stimuli. We hypothesized that cortical activity resulting from perceptual-level stimuli is sensitive to the moment-to-moment fluctuations in cortical excitability, and thus may not suffice to produce a behavioral response. We tested this hypothesis using electrocorticographic recordings to follow the propagation of cortical activity in six human subjects that responded to perceptual-level auditory stimuli. Here we show that for presentations that did not result in a behavioral response, the likelihood of cortical activity decreased from auditory cortex to motor cortex, and was related to reduced local cortical excitability. Cortical excitability was quantified using instantaneous voltage during a short window prior to cortical activity onset. Therefore, when humans are presented with an auditory stimulus close to perceptual-level threshold, moment-by-moment fluctuations in cortical excitability determine whether cortical responses to sensory stimulation successfully connect auditory input to a resultant behavioral response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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